TV

Friday Night With Jonathan Ross
16x18 (5/6/09 edition)
Last week's edition, which caused such a stir on twitter.

Stephen Tompkinson's African Balloon Adventure
Part 1 (of 3)
Never has a title so succinctly summarised a series.
[Watch it (again) on ITV Player.]

Articles

I Stole Your Images and Now I'm Suing You by Mike Lynch
(from Mike Lynch Cartoons)
Possibly the most ludicrous email you will ever read (and you have to read it, it's brilliant).

Manson: 'Columbine lost me everything' by David Balls
(from Digital Spy)
"Marilyn Manson has insisted that being associated with the Columbine massacre has significantly damaged his career... 'Blaming me for [Columbine] was ridiculous,' he told Kerrang." And he's right, really.

A pair of shorts for summer

Two new reviews of short films have been posted over at 100 Films today...

The Wraith of Cobble Hill (2005)

there’s no reason that any story shouldn’t be told in animated form… but sometimes, you have to wonder if it’s the best choice for the job. The Wraith of Cobble Hill is a perfect example for this debate as its modern, urban story seems to clash with the cartoonish style employed to bring it to the screen.

The Lunch Date (1990)

to attempt to describe the plot would be to give too much away, which would be a mistake because this is a beautifully shot (in grainy black & white) and performed tale with a distinct, yet subtle, character arc and an important, but not over-egged, moral message.

Read the full reviews at 100 Films.

There are currently 17 new films in the review pipeline at 100 Films. As ever, updates here as and when they're posted.

Poem of the Week: Limerick

by Roger McGough

Apologies for missing Poem of the Week last week. We're back on track with this:

Back in April I featured a poem from McGough's latest collection, Slapstick, called Gateway to the Atlantic. Here's another from that collection, which in part provided the inspiration for a couple of poems in my recently-submitted-for-assessment collection. I may share those here when the marks come back.

Anyway, back to McGough:

A poet passing through Limerick
Determined to write a fine limerick
He worked day and night
But try as he might
He never got the hang of the limerick.

Clever, eh? Though some won't be impressed. Just wait 'til you see mine...

As mentioned above, Limerick is taken from Slapstick (aka Slapstick Poems), McGough's 2008 collection published by Puffin.